The News Matrix: Tuesday 04 November 2014

Tuesday 4 November 2014 00:00 BST

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Virgin space tourists want money back

More than 30 people signed up to the Virgin Galactic space flights are having second thoughts in the wake of the crash of SpaceShipTwo. The company has admitted that a number have already asked for their money back after last Friday’s accident.

£10m raised for Ebola appeal in five days

An appeal launched last Thursday to help people affected by Ebola in West Africa has raised over £10m in just five days, organisers said. The Disasters Emergency Committee said it had been “humbled” by the public’s overwhelming generosity. The Government matched the first £5m.

Plans for new homes in East Jerusalem

A committee advanced plans yesterday for 500 settler homes in East Jerusalem, an official said. The homes would be located in a neighbourhood built on West Bank territory captured in the 1967 war and annexed to Jerusalem in a move not recognised abroad.

British banker hears murder charges

Rurik Jutting, the 29-year-old Cambridge graduate and financier accused of murdering two women in Hong Kong, appeared in court yesterday, dishevelled and dressed in black. His lawyer said he may be willing to take part in a re-enactment of the events that left 25-year-old Sumarti Ningsih and another woman dead in his flat.

‘Disappeared’ body found in bog

The body of Brendan Megraw, one of the IRA’s disappeared victims, has been formally identified after being dug out of a bog in the Irish Republic on 1 October. Mr Megraw, was abducted by the IRA on 8 April 1978, murdered and secretly buried. He was 23 and a newly-wed.

British woman on hunger strike again

Ghoncheh Ghavami, a British-Iranian woman detained in Iran after trying to watch a men’s volleyball match, has gone on hunger strike for a second time, her family said. Her lawyer said court documents say she was convicted of spreading anti-regime propaganda.

Man charged after he taxied plane to pub

An Australian man who drove to a pub in his plane has been charged with endangering lives.

The 37-year-old taxied the two-seater plane, with its wings detached, down the main street of Pilbara in Western Australia on Friday. Police sergeant Mark McKenzie said: “It was a pretty stupid thing to do.”

Backlash against gay boss at Apple

A memorial in St Petersburg to Apple Inc founder Steve Jobs has been dismantled after his successor, Tim Cook, came out as gay. The two-metre high monument, in the shape of an iPhone, was erected in 2013 by a Russian group of companies called ZEFS. ZEFS said it had to abide by a law combating “gay propaganda”.

Hucknall holds back the years with tour

Mick Hucknall is to revive Simply Red for a 30th anniversary reunion tour next year. The soul-pop group – whose hits include “Holding Back The Years” and “Money’s Too Tight To Mention” - bowed out at the O2 Arena in 2010 but will return to the venue on a 14-date tour. Hucknall said: “It feels like the right time.”

Irregular working hours ‘age the brain’

Scientists have found a link between irregular shift patterns and decline in brain function. The level of cognitive decline in people who worked irregular shifts for 10 years was equivalent to six-and-a-half years of natural, age-related decline, researchers from the universities of Toulouse and Swansea found.

‘Fairies’ deliver school’s first snow

Pupils at a Cornwall school were stunned to discover their playground covered in a blanket of snow yesterday. The snowfall at Landewednack Primary in Lizard came courtesy of a Twitter group called @thetwofairies, which specialises in “random acts of kindness”. The area has not experienced snow in living memory.